of mice, they put the mice through multiple tests. They found that male mice were impulsive, less social and hyperactive, but females were anxious, had memory issues and struggled to recognize new things. “We essentially found that this mechanism in the brain sends males versus females on a totally different trajectory of behaviors,” Stewart said. The mutation affects different brain regions in male and female mice, which impact behavior. The behavior exhibited by male mice was more externally evident, whereas, the female mice showed more internal manifestations through things like learning, memory and mood. Since disorders like ADHD and ASD are diagnosed through behavioral criteria, their findings suggest that the diagnostic process may not be adequately capturing females affected by these disorders, according to their research. “Disorders that we define behaviorally, could have completely different mechanistic underpinnings,” Stewart said. “And ultimately, we need to know what those biological underpinnings are, if we’re going to effectively treat them. It could be possible, for example, that treatments that we may give to all individuals with ADHD might work well in males, but might not work at all in females, because the biology of the brains of males and females are different.”
Brain Institute Members Engage Internationally Faculty from the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Institute recently traveled overseas to present their work at various conferences and meetings, on topics ranging from the sex differences in dopamine genetics to the impacts of stimulants on the clinically important membrane transporter proteins. SPAIN: Lucia Carvelli, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience, recently spoke at Gordon Research Conference’s 2022 Membrane Transport Proteins, “Biomedical Transporters: Physiology, Dysfunction and Targets of Pharmacotherapy” conference in Barcelona, Spain. Carvelli presented, “Remembering the Past to Prepare for the Future: the Long-Term and Inherited Effects of Amphetamine at the Monoamine Transporters.” DENMARK: Randy Blakely, Ph.D., executive director, was a keynote speaker at the second International Transmembrane Transporter Society Meeting, “Catching Transport in Motion,” in Copenhagen, Denmark. Blakely’s presentation was titled, “Presynaptic Choline Transporters: From Gene to Mouse to Disease.” Additionally, Felix P. Mayer, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, gave a presentation titled, “Dopamine Transporters Out of Control: Disrupted Regulation of Dopamine Clearance and a Potential Remedy via Manipulation of Opioid Signaling.” CANADA: Mayer also joined Adele Stewart, Ph.D., research assistant professor of biomedical science, at the first Dopamine Society meeting, Dopamine 2022, that took place in Montreal. Mayer presented “Sex and the Circuitry: Dopamine Transporter Regulation In Vivo.” Stewart presented her work, entitled “Sexually Dimorphic Dopamine Signaling Dictates the Penetrance and Behavioral Trajectory of Human Dopamine Transporter Coding Variation,” and chaired the symposium,“Guys and Dolls: Sex Effects in Dopamine Genetics, Circuits and Drug Action.”
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